Friday evening's ceremony featured a keynote address by Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and recipient of a master's degree in exercise physiology from FSU in 1978.

Saturday's commencement ceremony featured guest speaker Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. During the ceremony, FSU conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters on Wrighton, who received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from FSU in 1969.